The Sunday Times is the national newspaper readers spend the most time with, according to figures out today that explode the myth that people only flick through their papers.

People spend an average of 102 minutes reading the Sunday Times, more than 10 minutes longer than its nearest rivals, the Observer (89 minutes) and the Sunday Telegraph (85 minutes).

Today is the first time the National Readership Survey has released a set of data on the time spent reading papers. From now on, it will be a standard element of NRS data releases.

"There has been for many years a mistaken assumption that all we are reading for is two minutes - a drive-by read," said the NRS managing director, Roger Pratt.

"This data shows that this is absolutely not the case. People do spend considerable amounts of their day reading newspapers."

As expected, people spent more time with their Sunday newspapers - an average of 66 minutes reading the Mail on Sunday, 64 minutes with the Independent on Sunday and 61 minutes with the Sunday Express.

The Sunday Mirror occupies 46 minutes of readers' time, while with the News of the World it is 45 minutes. The People was read for 48 minutes and the Daily Star Sunday for 38 minutes.

NRS found readers spent an average of 70 minutes reading a Sunday newspaper, with 50% taking an hour or more over their read.

Saturday editions were read for longer than their weekday counterparts. The Daily Telegraph on Saturday was read for 88 minutes, the Guardian on the same day for 86 minutes and the Times for 79 minutes.

The Saturday edition of the Independent was read for 65 minutes, the Daily Mail for 57 minutes and the Daily Express for 52 minutes. The Sun was read for 36 minutes on Saturdays, the Daily Mirror for 43 minutes.

NRS found readers spent an average of 60 minutes reading a Saturday newspaper, but 42% took an hour or more.

Monday to Friday, the Daily Telegraph was read for the longest - 52 minutes.

The Guardian was read for 47 minutes, the Times for 49 minutes and the Independent for 40 minutes. The Financial Times was read for 35 minutes.

The Daily Mail and Daily Express were each read for 44 minutes. The Daily Mirror was read for longer than the Sun - 39 minutes and 32 minutes respectively. The Daily Star was read for 29 minutes.

Data on time spent reading was added to the NRS survey interview in January and today's figures cover the six months to June.

Overall, readers spend on average a total of 50 minutes reading a magazine and an average of 40 minutes reading a weekday newspaper.

"The introduction of the 'time spent reading' element to the survey reveals just how robust the print medium is," said Mr Pratt.

"This first data set, which will become a regular part of future releases, demonstrates that consumers are committing substantial time to print media despite increasingly busy lifestyles and the proliferation of media channels."

The data was based on interviews with newspaper readers. NRS recommended using caution in interpreting some of the results as some publications had very small data sample below the body's standard of 175.